The sun had not risen past the walls. The sparring ring inside the inner fortress was already crowded. Disciples stood in silence: Wen Tu, Bruga, Ryoku, the dark elf siblings Nyzekh and Yezari, and Kael.
Nivak stood in the ring, holding twin daggers. Across from him, Kael gripped his Whisperdraw blade.
No signal was given.
Kael lunged, fast and low. Nivak met him with quiet precision. He didn't flash, didn't flare. His blades met Kael's with clean, efficient arcs.
Kael flipped and sent a blade flying mid-turn. Nivak tilted his shoulder, brushing it aside. His breath shifted.
Then something flickered inside him. Not in sight, but deep in the blood. A pull in his skin, a silence in the wind. His family's bond, an ancient instinct tied to the hive sense of insects long gone. It didn't give him vision. It gave him warning.
Kael feinted again. Nivak's blades adjusted. He didn't track Kael's hands. He tracked the breaks in balance, the tremors in air, the false weight of footfalls.
Kael's step landed near. His blade angled in. Nivak blocked before the strike finished.
The disciples said nothing.
Kael dropped back and nodded. "Enough."
Nivak remained still.
From the side of the ring, another figure stepped forward. Taller. Older.
Nyzekh.
"My turn," he said.
Kael stepped aside. Nivak didn't move.
Nyzekh drew his twin sabers, Eclipsed Fang. They didn't gleam. They drank the light. The sparring ring dimmed around him.
He didn't move like a warrior entering a fight. He moved like something being forgotten, a piece of the world being erased.
Nivak's breath hitched. Not from fear, but from signal.
His senses came alive again, not in sight or sound but in silence. The bond didn't speak. It pulsed. A warning from the world itself that something was missing.
Nyzekh attacked.
There was no windup. One moment empty space, the next, a saber at his ribs.
Nivak shifted just enough. Cloth tore. His dagger flicked past Nyzekh's shoulder. They reset.
Nyzekh attacked again. This time low, then high. Then nothing. His rhythm broke intention. There was no pattern to predict.
Nivak stopped reading motion. He read the silence. The breaks. The places where his blood told him the world had gone dull.
He struck at absence.
Their blades met. No ring. No flash. Just a solid collision of force and presence.
Nivak dropped one dagger, kicked it up, let the arc pull Nyzekh's eye. Nyzekh struck, but at an echo.
Nivak slid behind him. Blade pressed to Nyzekh's throat.
Everything stilled.
Nyzekh lowered his sabers. "You learn fast."
Nivak nodded, catching his breath. "Only because you don't hold back."
A faint smile touched Nyzekh's face. He stepped forward and offered Nivak his dropped dagger.
Nivak accepted it with a nod. Their hands met briefly, steady and firm.
From the edge of the ring, Kael called out, "Next time, don't make him work so hard. He's got patrol duty after this."
A few quiet laughs followed. Even Yezari smirked.
Nivak sheathed his blades. "Next time, I'll aim for your knees," he said to Nyzekh.
"You'll miss," Nyzekh replied.
As Nivak stepped out of the ring, there was no silent performance or display. Just quiet understanding. He passed the others, Bruga brushing his shoulder, Wen Tu tapping his elbow as he walked by.
Wen Tu leaned in with a mutter. "He moves like smoke. I think my joints hurt just watching."
Bruga scratched his head. "If we spar with him, we better bring a healer. And a backup healer."
No one bowed. No one applauded.
They were all still learning.
Kael looked toward him again.
"Nivak. We have something to give you."
Nivak paused, surprised.
Kael continued, "We know your mission ahead is dangerous. Come."
They walked together across the inner yard to a shaded grove near the edge of the training grounds. Under the low branches of a broadleaf tree, the others stood waiting. In their hands, they held small orbs, smooth as marbles, each marked with a different sigil.
"We requested these from Daalo, the Stormguard's master craftsman," Kael said. "And Steward helped us use a reference magick from the secret archives. They're keyed to your qi."
Bruga stepped forward first and placed an orb in Nivak's palm. "Orb of Flame. One orb. Twenty-meter radius. It releases a burst of magma energy with five seconds of delay. Clear fast."
Kael followed. He handed over a pouch. "Five orbs of Silence. Shadow qi. They mask your presence for ten minutes. Enough to escape if you're cornered."
Yezari stepped next. Her voice was calm. "Orb of Ice. Three of them. Within twenty meters, it slows everything caught in the field. Inside ten meters, it freezes to death. Five seconds to activate."
Wen Tu gave him a small satchel. "Five orbs of Healing. Infused with healing qi. They will mend even severe wounds and restore your strength and qi flow."
Ryoku stepped forward quietly. His orb had faint etchings across the surface like cuts in glass. "Orb of Blades. One only. Domain radius, twenty meters. It will burst blade qi across the entire field."
Last was Nyzekh. He pressed a blackened orb into Nivak's hand.
"Void Orb," he said. "One only. Twenty-meter radius. It erases everything inside. Delay is five seconds."
Nivak looked down at the orbs, silent for a long moment.
"Thank you," he said, voice steady. "All of you."
"You'll come back," Bruga said.
"We're expecting stories," Kael added.
Wen Tu nodded. "And maybe bring one of those healing orbs for when Bruga throws out his back."
Bruga snorted. "Hey, that was one time."
Nivak nodded once. Then he tucked the orbs carefully into his satchel and turned toward the barracks.
They did not speak again. But under the tree, among warriors and friends, the weight of what they gave him was understood.
This time, the silence did not need to be broken.